Thematic Meeting of the Strategy and Policy Group

For the second year in a row the Sahel and West Africa Club has organised a thematic meeting of its Strategy and Policy Group (SPG) in Africa in response to the request made by its partners. The SPG meeting coincided with the Sahel and West Africa Club’s (SWAC) 30th anniversary. To celebrate this event, the SWAC decided to organise a discussion panel with its regional and development partners on the Medium and Long-Term Development Perspectives of West Africa.

Objectives

The aim of the meeting was to have an exchange of views on topics of common interest, while leaving administrative and budgetary issues to the SPG meeting held in Berlin from 25 to 26 January 2007. This gathering was also the opportunity to present the main points of the Inter-generational Forum on Endogenous Governance in West Africa, which had just ended (26-28 June 2006), and in which certain members of the SPG (Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Luxembourg and Switzerland) had participated as observers during the restitution of the workshops and the closing ceremony.

Topics

The SWAC has invited to this meeting high-level personalities, leaders of regional, continental and international organisations working in the region so that they can share with SPG members and other participants their strategic thinking on the region. These leaders have something in common: committed for many years, even decades, to the development of Africa, they are also actors as well as observers of this region which is undergoing massive change. Taking into account their unique position, the SWAC found it worthwhile to ask each of them to make an intervention on the following topics:

West Africa: Review of the current situation and the medium- and long-term perspectives of the region (the stakes for the West African population; women and youth in West African society; and the socio-political and economic situations within the framework for analysis agreed to by all participants);

Partnership with the Sahel and West Africa Club.

Each session was followed by an exchange between participants.

Key Outcomes

This meeting encouraged a substantial exchange of views on subjects of interest to the region and the development partners far from budgetary or administrative considerations. It also permitted to review current and future partnerships with the organisations represented. > summary record

Participants

There were approximately 30 participants representing 13 countries from the South and the North (including eight SPG member countries), members of regional organisations (AfDB, ECOWAS, the CILSS, the WAEMU, UNOWA, UNECA), international organisations (Luxembourg Agency for Development Cooperation, AIA, World Bank, UNDP), civil society (West African Women’s Network, Youth Coordination Group, ROPPA), and research institutions (African University Institute, University of Ouagadougou) as well as the mayor of Ouagadougou. > list of participants